I am not totally sold on hunting of full moon days, I believe the deer sleep through most the day when they have feed under moon-light all night. Seems to me that I see the deer late in the evening instead of the morning ,after moon-lit nights. It's great for timing the rut, but not so great for hunting deer. As well as if deer are feeding more on certain phases, I just don't know if that is the case. Like I said, I'm not totally convinced full moons are the prime hunting days, but I am interested in other thoughts on this subject.

I too have struggled to see deer during daylight when the moon in big.

I am also dubious about the moon timing the rut. My personal experience does not back up that theory.

But I do like to watch the moon movement so that I can be on stand while the moon is rising. If I am hunting a food source, I prefer a cool, high pressure system, with a growing moon rising in the evening.

Yeah I seem to see less movement when the moon is full. Dont know exactly why but it does seem to have some effect. I have noticed that deer are out early when there is a early rising moon and out later in the a.m. when there is a late setting moon. Thats why I wanted to find out the times. Ive noticed on the ddh calander that the deer activity is supposed to be slow now and pick up later in the month Im sure that it is due to the moon phase as C.A. is a big believer in it. I sure hope that the calander is close because I got two weeks off starting Nov. 10th!

Jake

Genesis 27:3 Take your bow and quiver full of arrows out into the open country, and hunt some wild game.....

I am not totally sold on hunting of full moon days, I believe the deer sleep through most the day when they have feed under moon-light all night. Seems to me that I see the deer late in the evening instead of the morning ,after moon-lit nights. It's great for timing the rut, but not so great for hunting deer. As well as if deer are feeding more on certain phases, I just don't know if that is the case. Like I said, I'm not totally convinced full moons are the prime hunting days, but I am interested in other thoughts on this subject.

I agree that deer hunting is more difficult during full moon cycles, but disagree on your reason why.

Deer are ruminants as we all know, and this method of digestion enables them to quickly fill the first part of their 4-part stomach in an hour or so, before they head back to the safety of cover to digest the rest of their meal in the ruminant's fashion. This process takes about 6 hours from start to finish. Part of this process involves them needing the necessary quantities of moisture to complete the process. This moisture can be obtained from the feed itself, or from directly drinking water.

Deer feed in some fashion every 6 hours under normal circumstances. Now we all know that the times when deer are most OBSERVED by us feeding is the classic dawn/dusk scenario. They also will many times get up from their beds in cover during mid-day, eat a bit of browse, and maybe go to a water source if one is nearby in the cover.

The only time deer will stay bedded all day is if there is a strong storm in progesss, or if it's extremely warm for that time of year and any extra movement causes them to waste energy.

If what you said is true about them bedding all day, then they should be in the open evening feed areas even earlier than normal, because it would be getting close to 12 hours since they last fed. But this does not happen, because they had fed in the cover about 6 hours from when they last fed.

Bottom line: I believe that they DON'T bed all day, and that you can still have some success if you can track when they did last feed, and to be in the cover when they feed again. You can also move a morning stand farther back toward where they bed, because if they left the open areas before legal shooting time, time they will be closer to where they bed. The same thing goes for when they feed in the evening. You have to be closer to where they bed, so that if they begin to move from bedding cover at last light towards the open feeding areas you can intercept them.

During full moon times I like to get back further in the cover if possible, and many times will NOT be out before first light, because the time that I want to be in the woods is later in the morning when the feeding urge hits them again.

Is it easy? NO! And it IS better hunting during a dark/waxing moon phase, that's for sure. But until we can change lunar cycles, we don't have much choice!

I have bought a Moon Guide for the past 3 years and have watched it closely to the different phases of the moon and the rising times and setting times and how it coincides with Deer movement/feeding and it has really been accurate on many occasions.I have also noticed if there is a high or low pressure coming in or in-coming storm the deer will move and feed a lot more before and after the said stormy weather too.